Korea's two major talent agencies saw their market capitalizations spike over the past year on the rising popularity of their pop stars overseas, a report showed Monday.
According to the report by Chaelbul.com, the market cap of top entertainment agency S.M. Entertainment Co. hit a record-high 1.12 trillion won ($990 million) on Friday, a two-fold increase from a year earlier.
Foreign holdings of S.M. Entertainment shares also reached 18 percent on Friday, up 10 percentage points from the previous year, as the agency gained global recognition thanks to its top "hallyu" stars such as Girls' Generation and Super Junior.
Hallyu, or the Korean wave, refers to the popularity of pop music and TV shows that have secured hordes of fans in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
YG Entertainment Inc., helped by the rising global popularity of its singers including Big Bang, 2NE1, and Psy, experienced a 65 percent soar in its market cap since end-November last year, when the company was first listed on South Korea's secondary stock market.
The rapid expansion of local talent agencies gave birth to new tycoons in the entertainment industry. Lee Soo-man, head of S.M. Entertainment, saw the value of his share holdings reach 242 billion won on Friday, up 29.5 percent from Jan. 2.
The value of shares held by Yang Hyun-suk, who heads YG Entertainment, also reached 223.1 billion won on Friday, up 71.7 percent over the cited period, the data showed.
Overseas sales of South Korean music, films and broadcasting content amounted to US$137 million in the January-June period, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier and a record first-half tally, according to the data by the Bank of Korea and industry sources.(Yonhap)